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Tool 3.1 – Scenario Writing Guide and Template

The actual production of a Future Classroom Scenario is best done in a face-to-face meeting involving several colleagues and/or the members of the Innovation Team (see Toolset 1).

1 - Writing a scenario

The steps taken as described in Toolset 1 and Toolset 2 are the necessary preparations for the start of the scenario creation. They make stakeholders reflect and discuss the framework of the scenario. Stakeholders involved in the scenario building will be focused on questions like:

What are the current characteristics of our school context?

What are our strengths and weaknesses? How can we mainstream innovation in our school?

How can we connect to current changes in society and in the world of education?

What are the skills and competences considered important for the students of our school?

Step 1. Building Future Classroom Maturity

The Future Classroom Maturity Model (Tool 2.1) is a way to assess different innovation parameters. It will give users the vocabulary to describe the average level and more importantly to describe the goals the scenario will aim at. Ideally, a scenario should be written to achieve just one level above the current level of maturity, as any higher may be unrealistic. The idea is to mainstream innovation and to have many stakeholders on board.

The Maturity Level test it will generate a report stating the level on the following dimensions:

Learner

Teacher

Assessment

School capacity for innovation

Resources

When creating a scenario, the intended level of one of the dimensions should be added. When designing specific Learning Activities later on, they should incorporate the intended level of the scenario.

Step 2. Learners' skills to be developed

Also important is to reflect on the skills the scenario aims to develop. These should not be related to a specific curriculum or subject area. They should be more transversal, 21st Century Skills. Further information on this is given in Tool 3.2 – Transversal skills.

Step 3. Responding to trends

Developers of a Future Classroom Scenario also consider how the school should respond to the trends identified in Toolset 1. There are a number of ways to address the trends:

Adapt to that future: This is necessary if it is a trend that may not be welcome but is inevitable and changes need to be made to tackle it, for example, increasing student numbers.

Embrace that future: This is normally the case for a trend that provides an opportunity for the school, for example, technology providing quick and efficient ways to monitor student progress.

Decide how you can adapt for the future and/or embrace the future, and add this information to the Future Classroom Scenario

The selected trend is another important element of the framework of the scenario. Innovative learning should embrace the opportunities of new technologies. Innovative Learning should also try to find an answer to the challenges of society and changes in behaviour and habits.

Suggested workshop activity

Discuss some trends in society and learning that are a challenge for your school and give some trends that give opportunities for innovation.

Step 4. Writing or adapting the scenario narrative

The Scenario narrative is a description of the main ideas of the framework of the scenario. It describes in very general phrases the main theme, the type of activities and technologies, and innovative ideas. The text also refers to the skills and competences the scenario is aiming at.

It must be possible to write the scenario narrative in about 10 sentences.

The information gathered during steps 1-4 will be gathered and serve as an umbrella under which teachers can create different sets of Learning Activities in a next stage.

To describe the main elements of the scenario, use this template (tool 3.1.1). There are several ways to collaborate on a scenario:

Share the file of the template as a Google Doc on Google Drive or as a Word file on OneDrive. Give access to all colleagues involved.

2 - Adapting an Existing Scenario

One optional approach to creating a Future Classroom Scenario is to adapt an existing one. The Innovation Team reads and considers whether some existing scenarios address appropriate trends and how they could be adapted for the local context.

This toolkit provides several scenario examples. They illustrate a range of teaching practices using ICT at various levels of Future Classroom maturity.

Use existing scenarios as a source of inspiration. Take the best elements and adapt them to the criteria mentioned above.

Rethinking teaching and learning

The Future Classroom Lab is created by European Schoolnet, its supporting 30 ministries and industry partners to help visualise how conventional classrooms and other learning spaces can be easily reorganised to support changing styles of teaching and learning.